Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : AT THE SCENE : San Clemente Residents Petition for Traffic Light

A day after 6-year-old Miguel Palacios was hit by a pickup truck and killed, residents began collecting signatures from their neighbors.

More than 300 signatures were collected to urge the San Clemente City Council to install a traffic light at the intersection of El Camino Real and Avenida San Luis Rey.

“We are politely trying to ask the City Council to do something immediately,” said Mike Razor, 32. There have been a number of close calls at the corner, he said.

But Akram Hindiyeh, the city’s traffic engineer, said there has been only one other accident at the intersection this year, a rear-end collision in which no one was seriously injured. Based on a history of only four accidents per year from 1983 to 1985, Hindiyeh said, the intersection’s accident count is “not high.”

Razor said the petitions would be presented to the council at Wednesday’s meeting.

Miguel Palacios was struck while in a crosswalk on El Camino Real. His 7-year-old sister, Sandra, and his cousin, Dianna Fajardo, 8, also were hit by the truck. They were badly injured and were being treated at week’s end at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.